TAR (tarred, tarring)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: tarred    , tarring   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tar mean? 

• TAR (noun)
  The noun TAR has 2 senses:

1. any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue

2. a man who serves as a sailor

  Familiarity information: TAR used as a noun is rare.

• TAR (verb)
  The verb TAR has 1 sense:

1. coat with tar

  Familiarity information: TAR used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TAR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

pitch; tar

Hypernyms ("tar" is a kind of...):

bitumen (any of various naturally occurring impure mixtures of hydrocarbons)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tar"):

coal tar (a tar formed from distillation of bituminous coal; coal tar can be further distilled to give various aromatic compounds)

Derivation:

tar (coat with tar)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A man who serves as a sailor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

gob; Jack; Jack-tar; mariner; old salt; sea dog; seafarer; seaman; tar

Hypernyms ("tar" is a kind of...):

crewman; sailor (any member of a ship's crew)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tar"):

able-bodied seaman; able seaman (a seaman in the merchant marine; trained in special skills)

bo's'n; bo'sun; boatswain; bos'n; bosun (a petty officer on a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen)

deckhand; roustabout (a member of a ship's crew who performs manual labor)

helmsman; steerer; steersman (the person who steers a ship)

bargee; bargeman; lighterman (someone who operates a barge)

officer; ship's officer (a person authorized to serve in a position of authority on a vessel)

pilot (a person qualified to guide ships through difficult waters going into or out of a harbor)

sea lawyer (an argumentative and contentious seaman)

whaler (a seaman who works on a ship that hunts whales)

• TAR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they tar    ... he / she / it tars   
Past simple: tared   
Past participle: tared   
-ing form: taring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Coat with tar

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

tar the roads

Hypernyms (to "tar" is one way to...):

coat; surface (put a coat on; cover the surface of; furnish with a surface)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

tar (any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue)

 Context examples 

A person smoking a low tar cigarette can inhale the same amount of tobacco tar, nicotine, and harmful, cancer-causing chemicals as in a regular cigarette, depending on how the cigarette is smoked.

(Low tar cigarette, NCI Dictionary)

Also called: Opiates, Black tar, H, Horse, Junk, Skag, Smack

(Heroin, NIH: National Institute on Drug Abuse)

Lignoceric acid occurs naturally in wood tar, various cerebrosides, and in small amount in most natural fats.

(Lignoceric Acid, NCI Thesaurus)

A person smoking a light cigarette can inhale the same amount of tobacco tar, nicotine, and harmful, cancer-causing chemicals as in a regular cigarette, depending on how the cigarette is smoked.

(Light cigarette, NCI Dictionary)

Tar balls can also irritate the skin.

(Oil Spills, NIH)

It is a piece of tarred twine.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The smell of tar and salt was something new.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Coal tar exposure leads to an increased risk of developing cancer of skin, lung, bladder, kidney and digestive tract as well as leukemia.

(Coal Tar, NCI Thesaurus)

Returning to France, I spent some months in a research into the coal-tar derivatives, which I conducted in a laboratory at Montpellier, in the south of France.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Coal tar pitch exposure leads to an increased risk of developing skin, lung, bladder, kidney and digestive-tract cancer as well as leukemia.

(Coal Tar Pitch, NCI Thesaurus)